Revenge of the nerd: A review of ‘The Amateur’

In “The Amateur,” we have an aptly named protagonist, who’s not really cut out for killing and maiming. We explore the machinations of a vengeance-seeker without “a very particular set of skills” or even the mindset to take another human life.

Nary a martini or tuxedo to be found here, the spycraft in “The Amateur” is grounded in a rough-hewn reality. This is dark, grim stuff. The plot is simple, decisive and the action propels the story rather than serving as an excuse for its own existence.

It isn’t a perfect film; there are some plot holes. But overall, it’s a highly competent and emotionally satisfying piece of film work.

Rami Malek (Oscar winner for “Bohemian Rhapsody”) plays Charles Heller, a desk-riding quant who conducts high level, eyes-only cryptography for the CIA. He’s living his best life, happily married and fulfillingly employed, until a terrorist attack shatters his idyllic existence. His wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is slain in a hostage situation gone wrong.

The muscle-bound alpha “operators” of the CIA are on the case, but Heller thinks their efforts are trivial at best. He demands justice to deaf ears. So he manipulates aggressively (i.e. blackmails) his superiors into providing him field-level training so he can hunt down the folks who killed the love of his life.

This does not really work well for our lead, as converting his talents from keyboards and algorithms to guns and fisticuffs is a tough transition. Laurence Fishburne shows up as Heller’s dark ops trainer. He brings his usual fire, but even he can’t force the round peg into Malek’s square.

The lead actor does an extraordinary job showing the frustration of having his thirst for blood outpaced by his limited abilities to achieve those ends. After a rough start, he eventually figures out which of his nonviolent skills from his CIA job he can employ and integrate into his revenge plans. Heller recognizes that he is more John Nash than Jason Bourne and acts accordingly with much better results.

This is an excellent, chewy role for Malek and he carries the movie throughout his journey from tragedy to his descent into moral ambiguity to his elevation toward catharsis.

“The Amateur” is based on a novel and 1981 film of the same name written by Robert Littell, with a modern updating by industry veterans Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli.

The script is rendered confidently by director James Hawes, whose god-tier gift to the world was the first season of “Slow Horses” on Apple TV+. There are a lot of exceptional shows on Hawes’ CV. This effort shows he needs more major projects greenlit.

I was fortunate enough to watch the screening in IMAX, and the wonders of Martin Ruhe’s cinematography looked astonishing in its gorgeous globetrotting glory. Ruhe previously was director of photography for another fine, visually arresting movie called “The American” in 2010. These movies are big screen siblings.

So far, 2025 has provided a good run of solid, midbudget movies for adults. “The Amateur” fits right in. While any financial positives are yet to be realized (at least until streaming), I think the industry is doing a good job weaning itself off the billion dollar franchises it has grown addicted to in the last 20 years.